It’s hard to imagine a child dying from diarrhea or a minor cut becoming a life-threatening infection, but this is the reality for many families around the world who have little or no access to health care or who simply cannot afford such treatment. A shortage of basic medical care, knowledge and supplies costs lives every day. Operation Blessing is helping reach the sick and impoverished through free mobile medical clinics, distributing medicine and medical supplies, providing life-changing surgeries, training and equipping community health workers and distributing wheelchairs to the disabled.

THREE-PRONGED APPROACH TO HEALTH & MEDICAL CARE

Rural Solutions: In addition to our medical missions, Operation Blessing trains Community Health Workers in Latin America and Africa to serve their communities. With the combination of our training and a backpack filled with supplies essential to basic medical care, these men and women are able to detect health concerns early. By having trained Community Health Workers within the community, there is someone continuously in contact with families to ensure everyone is healthy.

Teaching: At Operation Blessing, we don’t only want to treat disease—we want to prevent it. In addition to bringing medicine and early diagnostics and reporting to their communities, our Community Health Workers also educate people on proper hygiene and care. We also partner with outside organizations, like the Mayo Clinic, to provide educational material to those facing serious conditions and their families.

Strengthening Current Health Systems: Through donations of Medical Gifts-in-Kind, we’re able to provide much-needed medication to clinics and hospitals, allowing them to give quality care to patients for no cost. With resources freed up from medication costs, they are able to spend their funds to improve facilities and care in other ways. If you would like to learn more about contributing Medical Gifts-in-Kind, please visit our page, or call a procurement manager at 1-800-436-6348.

Addressing nutrition concerns before they become major health risks by providing sources of nutritious meals to children in vulnerable communities in places like Peru and Kenya.

Manufacturing chlorine to distribute in areas facing devastating illness, such as cholera in Haiti or Ebola in Liberia. By providing chlorine production units and training men and women on the ground, Operation Blessing provides a constant supply of chlorine to help combat the spread of these illnesses.

Join Operation Blessing and support medical care and health education for those in need. Find out how you can get involved and bring hope to the hurting today!

OUR APPROACH

International GIK Medicine Program

Globally minded and community focused, Operation Blessing’s medical care program includes a variety of strategic partnerships and special projects to strengthen local health systems and improve access to quality medical care, equip hospitals and clinics with medicine and diagnostic machines, improve access to health care in the poorest regions by conducting mobile medical campaigns and offer educational programs to local medical professionals. Learn more about how it works

How do pharmaceutical donations help?

Throughout Latin America and Africa, Operation Blessing provides donations of medicine received from partnering pharmaceutical companies. We work with more than 400 in-country health and community organizations and also provide access to free medicine through mobile clinics, hospitals, health centers and more. Thanks to these generous donations, patients are granted access to critically-needed medicine and care that they could not otherwise afford. Learn more

How does OBI partner with the Mayo Clinic?

In addition to working with our El Salvador team to produce informational videos on respiratory diseases (such as tuberculosis) and HIV, the Mayo Clinic also provides hands-on training in the field with Operation Blessing. In El Salvador, the Mayo Clinic’s partnership provides bronchoscopy training for Salvadorian doctors and others. In Honduras, Dr. Brian Brost, of the Mayo Clinic, travels two to three times a year to the area to provide Maternal and Fetal Emergency Care education for medical students and residents.

What happens when medical care isn’t available?

In poor rural communities where medical facilities are not easily accessible, Operation Blessing is training and equipping community health workers, who can provide, organize and explain lifesaving basics to locals for injuries, illness, childbirth and more. Community health workers are also equipped with first aid and other basic medical supplies necessary to provide care in these often isolated locations.